Kevin Love: ‘We’re going to miss games’

"We all know we’ll have to sacrifice but something has to be done," Love told ESPN.com Tuesday night. "It has to be sooner than later. We have to get the ball rolling. We can’t wait around until October or November and then nothing gets done. The owners will keep stalling and obviously they have more means than us to lock us out."

"I want to play basketball," Love said. "I want us — the players — to sign a great deal. I want us to make a compromise with the owners but not sign what they’re proposing. We’ll play hardball if we have to. I want there to be an NBA season but it’s also apparent that we’re going to miss games."

HoopsVibe’s Very Quick Call: The NBA would have a new Collective Bargaining Agreement if more people had Kevin Love’s attitude.

Love recognizes that both sides must compromise. And the compromising, known as collective bargaining, must begin as soon as possible.

The longer the posturing, pointing, and blaming continues, the less likely there’s a season.

Love’s view supports an interesting idea proposed by Stephen Brotherston of Hoopsworld.com. Brotherston believes the players should make a highly competitive offer to the owners. And they should do it now.

Think about it: the owners know the players will eventually return to the bargaining table. But when?

It might be September. It might be November. Or it might be January. They will return, though. They have to.

Whenever they do return, the owners will dictate the terms of the new CBA. The process won’t be easy for the players, as Stern and the owners will extract everything they possibly can from the players. They’ll ‘re-set’ the league’s financial system and then some.

So why not undercut the owners’ leverage by making those concessions today and doing it in the most public manner possible?

Suppose the players gave the owners a 52-48 split of Basketball Related Income. Suppose they found a happy medium between the owners’ flex cap and the current luxury tax system. Suppose they agreed to significant salary rollbacks and, say, eliminated the Mid Level Exception and other costly loop holes.

Here’s the key: suppose they informed every print/net reporter, radio broadcaster, TV host, and blogger of such concessions. The ball would be in the owners’ court; the players would be ‘the good guys’.

Something would get done. And that something would be far better for the players than a wait-and-see approach.